As the health care law rolls out for members and staffers, McCaul — who has significant investments in health insurance companies such as United Health Group and Aetna, according to his financial disclosures — wanted all to know he felt the pinch, too.

This guy has no clue what reality is. His family felt the pinch? How about the families without insurance, because they can’t aford by being unemployed?? The feel the PUNCH!

drixnot3

Makes me want to paunch him in his fat face….. his family is “impacted” give me a break.

julzverne

He has a right to complain about the disaster commonly known as “Obamacare.” Not one Republican voted for this mess. The people in Congress who should not complain are all the democrats and their staff who voted for the un-Affordable Care Act and then whined about the cost, so comrade Obama would instruct the Office of Personnel Management to subsidize their plans!

aleatharhea

It’s interesting that those who fervently wish for the law, the President and the nation to fail call it a “disaster” before most of the provisions ever take effect and before the numbers are in on how many people will sign up, save thousands and/or have healthcare for the first time.

You are correct that not one Republican voted to overhaul the shameful broken pre-ACA health insurance situation. And not one Republican proposed a bill for an alternate plan. They are happy to let millions suffer, if they think it’ll make them some political points.

Extremely early returns indicate that the law will be a huge success. And certainly nobody can argue with the goals of the law.

Let’s look at the sign-up rate and interest level so far:

About 365,000 people have managed to get health insurance on the new state and federal websites in October and November, 2013. That relatively low number reflects the many technical glitches, which are being ironed out. The number of people who visited, most of whom will come back and actually procure insurance, is more than 39 million. That’s almost 20 million people per month.

The full name of the law is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Let’s talk about the Patient Protection part.

One out of every two people in the US have a pre-existing condition, including many “conditions” that have no impact on their health or lifespan at all, and conditions that have no bearing whatsoever on most of the healthcare they could receive if any insurance company would cover them for anything. Refusing them insurance is now illegal. Refusing to pay a legitimate claim and dropping someone because they filed one is now illegal. Charging women more than men for the same thing is now illegal. Scam policies that charge premiums but deliver virtually no benefits are now illegal. Hiding costs until the bill comes is now illegal.

Now let’s talk about the affordable part. 44 million Americans have no insurance and another 38 million have inadequate insurance, a.k.a., junk plans or scam plans. These people were literally destined to die much younger than those of us with insurance. These are the people that can not afford healthcare under the old “system”. Most of them will now be able to afford healthcare, even though the GOP has managed to leave 5 million high and dry. That is a fact. Wishing against wish for the law to be a “disaster” doesn’t change the fact.

Ror purely political reasons, 25 GOP states initially refused to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid, and refused to set up state exchanges. 27,000 people will die because of this cynical Republican political ploy.

As the citizens of those states see how most people who sign up are able to save thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per year, for vastly improved coverage, and how people who could never before afford healthcare can now afford it, the political tide will turn. GOP states are grudgingly starting to come on board because the pressure from citizens and the benefits and cost savings that are starting to be seen are undeniable.

Even though the GOP has prevented 5 million people from being able to afford healthcare, nobody can argue that the old travesty of a “system” is better. Not when we collectively paid twice what the next most expensive nation paid in healthcare costs, yet ranked so poorly in healthcare outcomes.

This law may be hugely successful or it may only be one incrementally successful step on the way toward single payer. But what no legitimate healthcare, insurance, economic or political expert argues is that it is or will be a disaster. Repeatedly lying that it is doesn’t make it so.

Thomas Aquinas

As Lenin asked: Who decides what is fair for whom? Who decides how much their relatives and political supporters should have? And on, and on.

Montesquieu

Great thinkers, such as Hume, Smith, and Bastiat, helped discover and refine the principles of individualism and its associated liberty.

Liberalism Is Nonsense

While free countries enable even their poorest citizens to enjoy annual incomes three times greater than those of the rest of the world, envy remains one of the most dangerous of the anti-social passions infecting the West.

pineagig

What a cry baby! I wished he’d give us the facts… details.

steveh46

Ohh, that poor man! That poor, poor man. His premiums went up! There may be different doctors on his new plan. That the government and taxpayers are paying more of the premium for than he is out of his own pocket. My heart bleeds for him.

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About Heard on the Hill

Heard on the Hill is Roll Call's Capitol Hill gossip blog.

Warren Rojas is a Heard on the Hill columnist for Roll Call, having previously worked as the founding dining editor for Northern Virginia Magazine and also as a tax reporter for Tax Notes. @WARojas